Sleeping sickness
by LittleDesiredCullen
Summary: "The van wasn't stopping. I saw the horror cross Tyler's face. I felt that same horror, because like him, we both knew I was going to die." - Edward is too late and Bella is hit before he can save her. Her injuries prove to be fatal and Edward makes a last, rash decision to save her life. But will she adjust to the new life that he gives her, even if she has to give up her old one?


_Here I am spewing out more story ideas. This one is inspired by the lyrics for Sleeping Sickness by City and Colour. (hence the title) The song is a master piece._

_As always, let me know what you guys think. xoxo_

* * *

**_Bella_**

It was like the nightmare you wanted to wake up from. The screech of tires and catching the sight of the van hurdling toward me. It caught the ice wrong, I saw that. I saw the horror cross Tyler's face. I felt that same horror, the way my heart fell to my feet and everything slowed down around me, because like him, we both knew I was going to die.

It wasn't a nightmare, though. The van wasn't stopping. I wasn't waking up.

Everyone was screaming. Maybe they knew, too. But I was too frozen to do anything but stare. Time sped up again. It happened fast. The distance closed between me and the van and I closed my eyes.

Pain struck me. I felt the way my bones shattered between the two cars and everything crashed into me at once.

Every memory, thought and emotion, it all balled up into a single flash of light. My entire childhood, the face of my parents and the disappointment of having achieved almost nothing at _all._

And I _was _going to die.

And then there was Edward Cullen. It stirred inside me, the utter frustration and sadness, because I was going to die and he would forever be a mystery. There was more to him and I was never going to figure that out.

I wondered, as I began to fade, if he would hate me even after my death. There was warmth. A black, sinking warmth and I could do nothing but accept it.

* * *

_**Edward**_

_Not her!_

It was too late, I knew. The van collided with Bella. I heard the shatter of her bones as she was pinned against the side of her truck.

"Edward, _don't!" _Alice cried but I was already half way across the parking lot.

I skidded to my knees and shoved her truck aside and her body fell to the pavement. It struck me, then, and I choked, because her blood was splattered _everywhere._ Up the sides of her truck and Tyler's van, pooling on the pavement, soaked in her hair and dripping from her face and every gash on her body.

The sweet, brilliant red strained at my trembling hands and it stung like a chemical burn.

I swallowed once, then twice. The demon crackled and was ready to pounce.

_No._

_NO!_

"Bella?" I rasped out. Her heart was beating, but it was weak and sputtering. Her eyes fluttered and she gurgled on a swell of blood that trickled down the corner of her lips.

The horn of Tyler's van blared and the students around me screamed, but I ignored it, it all just fell away and didn't matter anymore. There was just me and the innocent, dying girl who I had been hellbent on killing just days ago.

I drew closer to her. "Bella, please." I whispered and despite of the fire in my throat, cradled her head. Her heart stuttered again. There was so much blood. Too much blood. Too much damage.

It… _hurt. _It hurt more than the thirst that seared in my throat, to see her like this. So broken, so small. So _fragile_, even more than before. Her future ended here.

Bella Swan was going to die. Not decades from now surrounded by family at a ripe, old age. Not peacefully in her sleep. She was going to die slow and painfully, here in the arms of the boy who hated her for ridiculous, cowardly reasons. She wouldn't be graduating high school, or attending college. She won't ever fall in love and exchange her vows with the love of her life. She won't have children, or a peaceful retirement, or the chance to travel.

The only thing that she had in her future was her place six feet underneath a headstone.

And now… I _wanted _her to survive? I was going to grieve and mourn the loss of a human who I barely knew? Humans died everyday. They were _born _to die.

The wail of emergency vehicles grew louder and I found that my crouch had become fixed as the paramedics fought their way through the crowd to reach the girl, that I was suddenly intent on not leaving her side.

I forced myself to part with her. I had to let them try and save her. I staggered to my feet and fell back into familiar, enormous hands.

"What the hell was that?" Emmett hissed into my ear anxiously and led me away from the accident. There were four paramedics, three hovered close to Bella and they spoke in low, fast voices. They were working desperately.

Their thoughts battered in my brain, all with the same prognosis. Her chances of surviving were slim.

I shuddered away.

"_Edward._"

"I have to call Carlisle." I choked out at last. The words shook, as did my shoulders.

_Not her. _

I moved past my siblings, already clutching my phone and their thoughts followed in bewilderment. It was Alice's mind that I paid attention to. She was the only one that wasn't panicked, her thoughts were not one continuous string of insults. She didn't think I was crazy, not entirely. Her vision had… _changed._

It was Bella. She sat, curled up in a ball. She was trembling but she was… whole. There wasn't any blood, her clothing wasn't tattered. Her skin was still pale and translucent but I couldn't catch her blush underneath it. Her head flitted up, then and her eyes, as always, stared widely in their sockets. They weren't that deep brown, anymore. They glowed a bright, frightened red.

Unlike most of Alice's visions, this one was crystal clear. It was one of the events that was _going _to happen in the future. There was nothing changing it. It stood firm like stone. But surely there was another way… Surely the girl could strike that small, impossible stroke of luck and _survive._

I pulled away from her thoughts and I felt the horror harden on my face, or was it disbelief? It wasn't anger. It wasn't even disapproval. I caught my sister's eye from across the parking lot. She stood frozen, shock fixed to her delicate features.

_So, she wasn't expecting it, either. _

What was _happening_ to me?

"_Edward?" _Carlisle's voice came from my hand and I lifted the phone hastily to my ear.

"Carlisle," I rushed out. "It's the girl - it's Bella."

"_What about her?_" There was worry to his tone, now. He could probably make out the chaos of noise behind me. The paramedics were still fighting to stabilize her. Tyler was already getting carried away on a stretcher, although he was sporting nothing but a small gash to his forehead.

My jaw clenched. I couldn't find myself able to attend to my new found hatred of the boy, that he was going to go on living while the girl would decompose in a cold, dark shoe box.

_She deserves better than death. _But what alternative was there _besides _death?

"There's so much blood," I whispered. "I… I couldn't get to her in time, to stop the van. Her _bones_, Carlisle."

It didn't sound anything like me, the way my voice trembled and staggered over words. Venom pooled again, this time directly in my eyes. I blink them away.

_I was crying over a human._

"_Slow down, start over,_" Carlisle said calmly over the line. "_Tell me what happened._"

I drew in a breath through my teeth, then another, so her exposed scent wouldn't set my throat ablaze again. He's gentle, patient voice smoothed over the edges of my anxiety. If he was calm, then surely everything would be alright? Yes, Carlisle would make this whole thing better.

"She got in an accident. One of the students slid over the ice with their van and hit her. She's pinned against her truck…" I clenched my eyes closed against the venom that burned there. Carlisle took in a quiet breath of horror.

"The paramedics don't think she has a chance of surviving. Her injuries are too severe. I don't know what can be done," I was whispering again, shaken to my core.

"_Have they stabilized her, yet?_"

I regretted the decision to look over at the scene again. The paramedics were very carefully lifting her body onto the stretcher, now. Her head rolled like a rag doll with the movement. It lolled and her face met with my eyes. The pain intensified tenfold. I felt as though I was drowning in my own lungs, as though the agony of that sight had reached out and was strangling me.

But the paramedics were still on edge, they still moved quickly and cautiously, as though ready to leap and restart her heart if it chose to fail on her. There was a pull at the centre of my chest that needed to be at her side. I wished to bring my thumb to her cheek and chase away the blood on her soft, sweet skin. I couldn't imagine what was going through her mind, if she was conscious at all, terrified and alone, uncertain of what was happening to her – if she would make it through the next hour…

I wanted to be there for her. Perhaps she hated me, but it was better than for her to suffer alone, swarmed by unfamiliar faces.

"_Edward?_" Reality snapped at me like an elastic band. Everything sped up and came into focus again. Carlisle was anxious for my answer.

"They have…" Suddenly I was faint. I was holding myself up against the brick wall of the school. I was helpless. I heard the doors of the ambulance slam shut and I was powerless as it sped dangerously out of the parking lot, striking across Main Street twenty kilometers over the speed limit.

"I don't think she's going to make it." I whispered hopelessly.

"_Have faith, Edward," _For once, my father sounded uncertain of himself. I heard his pager go off over the receiver. "_She's coming now. The ambulance is close._" I heard that, too, the faint cry of it's siren growing louder as it neared the hospital.

"Save her. Please, Carlisle. Save her. Don't let her die." I choked out. Suddenly, the request was aching to come out.

_Change her. Make her one of us. Give her a future._

Something stirred and ached inside me, because it _was _what I wanted. I was looking forward to Alice's vision unfolding more and more. But then there was her father and mother to consider. Either way it would pain them to lose their daughter. But to have them mourn her death, not knowing that she was alive and well…

I shuddered again. The demon was recoiling in disgust and confusion.

"_I'll do everything in my power to help her, son."_

The line disconnected and I was left alone to drown in my own premature grief over a human girl.

* * *

**_Bella_**

I was floating. There was nothing but darkness and strange, eerie silence. I could only just float along with it.

There was still pain, but it was almost as though there was a wall separating me from the worst of it.

_So maybe I wasn't died. At least not yet. _

That's what scared me. I didn't know if I _was _dead. Was this death? Just floating alone in complete darkness? It wasn't darkness, though – there was _nothing_. I was right smack in the middle of _nothing_.

My thoughts drifted to Charlie and it hurt. He lost mom and now he was going to lose me, too. I prayed that he would carry on without me, that he wouldn't lose himself completely…

And then there _was _something. A voice – two of them. I heard it across the dark plain, far out in the distance. At first it was a low muffling, like trying to catch a conversation from behind a wall. It wasn't words, just sound.

I strained to listen harder. They spoke back and forth. The first voice was calm, the other was pained and desperate. I couldn't imagine why, but I felt sympathy for that other voice.

It grew clearer. I found that I wasn't really floating anymore, but hovering above a hard surface, like gravity was ready to drop me.

"Her heart…" the other voice whispered. Even though it was strained, it was still beautiful. I welcomed it eagerly into my dark nothingness. "Do you think she can handle it?"

"Esme had similar injuries," came the first voice, speaking reassuringly to the other one. It flowed in my ears like warm honey. "The doctors couldn't even find a pulse. The morphine will take the strain off of her heart."

There was a soft choking. It made my chest ache in a way that didn't feel like shattered bones. "Will she hate me?"

"I don't know for certain, son," murmured the first voice in regret. "Perhaps she'll appreciate you saving her… but you must chose, now, Edward. She is fading fast…"

_Edward… Edward… _

My eyes fluttered then and there was bright light instead of darkness. Two faces hovered close in, bleach white light glowing behind them as halos above their heads, and both were exquisite.

_Were they angels escorting me to heaven? _I rolled my head and focused onto the angel whose hair shone a feverish red. Pain rippled across his face like a violent storm and his eyes…

His eyes were gold.

Already I was felt myself beginning to fade away again. I part my lips, not sure if I could speak at all and mouthed. "_E… Edward…_"

He turned away from me. The darkness grabbed at me and pulled me under again.

"Do it, Carlisle," Edward rasped out. And there was a cool touch against my cheek. A hand. _His_ hand. I struggled to keep my mind above the nothingness but it was stronger.

"I am so sorry, Bella. I'm sorry," His soft sobbing began to fade in the distance. "_Please forgive me…"_

There was a sharp pinch at the side of my neck and suddenly everything was on fire.

I opened my mouth to scream but there wasn't any sound.


End file.
